


like passing notes in secrecy

by quinnking



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, F/F, POV Emma Swan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-10
Updated: 2017-11-10
Packaged: 2019-01-31 11:17:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12680799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quinnking/pseuds/quinnking
Summary: Emma likes to think that they have a love story without spoken word, so unlike the books they read and share.





	like passing notes in secrecy

**Author's Note:**

> A little fluff... thing. Idk what this is and it literally came from a dream, so here we go.
> 
> Very little dialogue, though. Title comes from Enchanted by Taylor Swift. :) 
> 
> Follow me on Twitter: robinwrightt  
> Follow me on Tumblr: robinwright

_New York, April_

The weather is getting warmer and Emma uses her jacket as a blanket on the massive rock in the park. The sun is beating down on her back and she thanks God she's smart enough to have sat with her back toward it.

She feels someone shift up onto the rock and she doesn't even have to look to know it's  _her._ The girl with the long curly hair in a pretty braid. She doesn't know her name, she hasn't asked. 

She taps Emma on the shoulder and gives her the book that Emma had (wordlessly) let her borrow a week ago. Inside, was a small note. 

_This book is beautiful. Thank you._

The handwriting is neat and curvy and beautiful, and Emma thinks she's going to keep this note forever. Is it even possible to have a crush on a girl you've never even spoken a word to, but who you've seen everyday? Because Emma's done it.

In turn, Emma handed back the book Regina had let her read. She, herself wrote a little note in her scribbly writing. 

_Jane Austen isn't that bad. Who knew._

She hears Regina giggle and Emma's stomach swoops and flutters. 

* * *

_New York, July_

She cut her hair, Emma notices, when she walks up. Dark still, but up to the shoulders and curly. Curls that put Emma's to shame, more natural and less done up. More wild. She so badly wants to say how beautiful she looks but they don't do that.

Emma likes to think that they have a love story without spoken word, so unlike the books they read and share. And who is she to ruin something so pure, so beautiful and so simple? 

Except, it's not simple. Because Emma can't help but think about this girl all the time. How sometimes Emma's hair will smell like her because they're sitting so close. How many notes she has in the desk in her bedroom at home, hidden away like a secret. Theirs. How she'll dream of the girl; how she talks, how she'd say Emma's name. 

The girl taps Emma on the shoulder and hands back her copy of Stand By Me. One of Emma's personal favourites. Inside, another note. Another collector. 

_I loved this. May have to go out and buy my own copy. Emma is a pretty name. Regina is mine._

Emma looks at her book in confusion. How does she know her name? And then she remembers, she got this book young and wrote her name inside the front cover of the book. Well, now she doesn't have to call her  _That Girl_ anymore. Regina. 

Her heart rate doesn't slow down for the whole duration that they sit under the beating sun. She feels red colouring her collarbones but she can't leave. She never leaves first. 

Regina gets up around an hour and five minutes after she gets there, and she smooths out her dress when she hops down from the rock. She gives Emma a smile that makes her heart drop and she leans in and kisses Emma on the cheek before walking away. 

* * *

_New York, September_

The notes have gotten longer, more intimate, more private. Emma gets more nervous about having to hide them from her parents than ever.

One of them reads, "have you ever wanted a love like theirs? So beyond description, where you can share it and make whoever is reading it feel it too? Something so staggering that you can't believe this feeling exists at all? I want that. -R." And she signed that one off with a little heart.

Another one says, "you looked pretty in that green blouse. I think you'd really like the book I'm going to give you today; the lead is a heroine who looks hard but is in fact soft."

That one makes Emma chuckle whenever she remembers it, because even without words, Regina's able to read her.

Today, Regina’s wearing a light blue sundress and she looks radiant. Emma quickly scribbles this addition onto the note down on the book she’s handing back to her.

The smile Emma sees on Regina’s face while she reads the compliment is enough to brighten Emma’s whole day.

They read in silence, as they usually do, leaning against each other. Emma wonders if Regina ever feels like this. Ever gets lost in the warmth of Emma or the smell of her, if she ever gets distracted from reading because of how close they are.

Emma doesn’t know the answer. She probably never will, and she burns with it. With the fact that she got herself into such a complicated relationship. Friendship? No, relationship. Friendship. She doesn’t even know what to call what her and Regina have. She wishes she can rewind time and change the terms of this arrangement. Wishes she just plucked up the courage to talk to her that very first day.

She barely gets any reading done today, and for the next few days after, even when Regina gives her a brand new book.

* * *

_New York, December_

It’s freezing. Emma’s bundled as warm as she can be, but she doesn’t ever stop herself from coming out here daily to do her readings.

But today… Regina doesn’t come. She sits outside, in the cold, for over an hour and a half. With a resigned sigh, she slides off the rock and hobbles back to her apartment.

She doesn’t come until it’s nearing Christmas, and Emma herself doesn’t even know why she continued to come. Maybe out of spite; it was her rock first.

Regina’s wearing a thick black peacoat and even in freezing weather, she still manages to look beautiful and put together. Emma almost envies her as much as she swoons over her.

Regina pulls out a blanket to put on the cold rock and it sits back to Emma’s own back. She gives the book back and there’s a note inside. A pretty lengthy note.

_Emma,_

_I’m sorry that I haven’t shown. I feel like I need to apologize even though I probably don’t have to and you probably didn’t notice my absence._

_I have gotten engaged._

Emma’s heart stops and squeezes.

_But I don’t want to marry him. He’s lovely, but he’s in love with someone else also. It’s just what our parents want, of convenience._

_I’m sorry. This will be the last day I can come out here._

_-Regina._

Emma’s shellshocked, and she reads the letter once more. Twice more. She clears her throat and swears her eyes are welling up because of the weather, not because of emotion. But then she feels a gloved hand swooping around to get at her hand, and the sadness dims a little.

 _Run away with me,_ Emma thinks.

“I wish I could.”

Wait. Did she ask Regina to run away with her out loud? Regina talked back to her, too, her voice deep and not at all what she was expecting and somehow, this knowledge just made Emma lo- _like_ her more.

“You could. No one should be forced to marry someone they don’t want to.”

They turn toward each other this time.

“Where would we go?”

“My parents are pretty rich, too,” she says. “Nolan Industries.”

Regina’s eyebrows almost disappear into her hairline. “Wow,” she breathes, and Emma can see it in the air.

Emma leans forward and kisses her, just once and softly on the lips. If this is the last day they’ll spend together, she might as well do this.

“Do you really want to run away together?” Regina whispers.

“Yeah, why not,” Emma says, voice thick. “I’ve been meaning to travel. California sounds nice right about now.”

“California,” Regina says dreamily.

Emma looks at Regina, seriously. “Let’s do it.”

Regina smiles. “Okay, let’s go to California.”

* * *

_California, December_

They do.


End file.
